Photo TR of a giant container vessel

[Groteslurf]

2 weeks ago I organised a visit for a client to one of the bigger container vessels in the world.

Place : port of Antwerp

Vessel : Xin Hong Kong

Capacity : 9580 teu (20' containers)

Length : 336.70 meter

Width : 46.50 meter

Draft : 15 meter

 

Some of you might be interested in some pics of this visit.

Final pic.

As you can see there are 18 containers next to each other, which makes these vessels do not fit through the Panama canal.

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random engine room shot

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Container action

'POV' of the front of the ship from the bridge.

The bridge of the vessel.

Container stacking on board of the vessel.

I counted 26 of those straddle carriers in action for 'our' vessel.

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Straddle carriers (those yellow vehicles) bringing the containers to the side of the ship.

Terminal overview

left side

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Back of the ship

[EmBy]

Nice photos, 18 containers across amazing .

 

Saw a few programmes on Discovery about giant containers before, and the statistics are unreal.

[phazan]

Whoa, that's really cool you got to see that! Looks like one of those random things I would be interested in. Thanks for sharing!

[cpfan101]

That is really cool. Thanks for the great pictures! It is unbelievable what people can make float these days. Plus I thought that the Panama Canal was big enough to fit every ship in existance. How did you get those pictures though? They were great.

 

--David

[major bummer]

WOW!!

amazing that the boat floats and that it can hold that much cargo.

thank for showing us that, i am still amazed.

MB-

[Groteslurf]

That is really cool. Thanks for the great pictures! It is unbelievable what people can make float these days. Plus I thought that the Panama Canal was big enough to fit every ship in existance. How did you get those pictures though? They were great.

 

--David

 

Thanks.

About the Panamacanal, I looked up the exact details on wikipedia :

Panamax is determined principally by the dimensions of the canal's lock chambers, each of which is 33.53 metres (110 ft) wide by 320.0 metres (1050 ft) long, and 25.9 metres (85 ft) deep. The usable length of each lock chamber is 304.8 metres (1000 ft). The available water depth in the lock chambers varies, but the shallowest depth is at the south sill of the Pedro Miguel Locks and is 12.55 metres (41.2 ft) at a Miraflores Lake level of 16.61 metres (54 feet 6 in). The height of the Bridge of the Americas at Balboa is the limiting factor on a vessel's overall height.

 

 

USS Missouri, one of the Iowa class battleships, makes a very tight fit as she passes through the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal in October 1945.The maximum dimensions allowed for a ship transiting the canal are:[1]

 

Length: 294.1 metres (965 ft)

Beam (width): 32.3 metres (106 ft)

Draft: 12.0 metres (39.5 ft) in tropical fresh water (the salinity and temperature of water affect its density, and hence how deeply a ship will sit in the water)

Height: 57.91 metres (190 ft) measured from the waterline to the vessel's highest point

 

 

However, an expansion is planned to be finished by 2014.

 

After expansion, the Panama Canal is expected to be able to handle vessels up to 12000 TEU in size; currently, it can only handle vessels up to about 5000 TEUs. It is estimated that this expansion will be completed by 2014. A third set of locks, 427 meters (1,400 feet) long, 55 meters (180 feet) wide, with a draft of 18.3 meters (60 feet) will supplement the two existing sets of locks.

 

 

[edit] Comparison of sizes

class: Panamax => Panamax II

Length: 1050 ft => 1400 ft

Width: 110 ft => 180 ft

Draft: 41 ft => 60 ft

TEU: 5000 => 12000

 

 

How did I get these pictures, you ask. I may have misunderstood what you mean as english in not my native tongue, and in that case sorry, but somebody who was with me, had a camera and just took the pictures. It's simple like that. I'm just wondering how you thought I got the pictures ?

[HppyDazi]

Cool pics. I have seen some of those ships in VA in the Chesapeake Bay, but I don't think they were nearly that large.

[disneyfan1313]

That was really cool to see! Did you get to see the living quarters for the crew on the ship? What were they like?

[Groteslurf]

^No, we were not guided arround there.

 

But I can imagine they were quite spacy, as the vessel is operated with a 23 persons crew. They have 6 floors of each about 45 meters long by 10 meters wide, so space enough imo.

[BeemerBoy]

Awesome pics! This really brought back some memories. I hope you don't mind me adding a couple pics to the thread. It's not often you see a huge container vessel topic that you can actually add something too.

It was my job once to offload a 65ft. private yacht from Italy, and transport it for a photo shoot in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

The ship was nowhere near as big as the one you photographed, but the size of these things are pretty intimidating nonetheless. I remember standing on top of the containers while prepping the yacht to be offloaded, and watching those cranes hoist the containers over your head is pretty unnerving! Quite an experience I'll never forget.

 

Thanks again for the pics!

 

EDIT: Just realized the magazine cover shot was of the other one we offloaded. So much for accurate reporting, but you get the idea.

The final result of our hard work.

Obviously offloading and placing in the water.

The yacht, onboard and in the slings.

[Groteslurf]

Awesome pics! This really brought back some memories. I hope you don't mind me adding a couple pics to the thread. It's not often you see a huge container vessel topic that you can actually add something too.

It was my job once to offload a 65ft. private yacht from Italy, and transport it for a photo shoot in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

The ship was nowhere near as big as the one you photographed, but the size of these things are pretty intimidating nonetheless. I remember standing on top of the containers while prepping the yacht to be offloaded, and watching those cranes hoist the containers over your head is pretty unnerving! Quite an experience I'll never forget.

 

Thanks again for the pics!

 

EDIT: Just realized the magazine cover shot was of the other one we offloaded. So much for accurate reporting, but you get the idea.

 

Thanks for adding the pics. Really cool !